General Discussion? What's that all about?

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The New York City meetup yesterday has a video available of the second part of the meetup. It's quite an interesting discussion about requests for adminship, with participants including Newyorkbrad, MBisanz, DGG and various others. Up to about 25 mins in they discuss RFAs, then it's onto the chapter.

Quite an interesting thing to watch; not only the discussion, but also how meetups work out in other places. I've been to a few meetups, but they've all taken place in a pub/restaurant, and are a lot less formal - no presentations, no meeting room etc, just casual conversation. What are other people's experiences of meetups, or thoughts on the video?

The New York City meetup yesterday has a video available of the second part of the meetup. It's quite an interesting discussion about requests for adminship, with participants including Newyorkbrad, MBisanz, DGG and various others. Up to about 25 mins in they discuss RFAs, then it's onto the chapter.

Quite an interesting thing to watch; not only the discussion, but also how meetups work out in other places. I've been to a few meetups, but they've all taken place in a pub/restaurant, and are a lot less formal - no presentations, no meeting room etc, just casual conversation. What are other people's experiences of meetups, or thoughts on the video?

The New York City meetup yesterday has a video available of the second part of the meetup. It's quite an interesting discussion about requests for adminship, with participants including Newyorkbrad, MBisanz, DGG and various others. Up to about 25 mins in they discuss RFAs, then it's onto the chapter.

Quite an interesting thing to watch; not only the discussion, but also how meetups work out in other places. I've been to a few meetups, but they've all taken place in a pub/restaurant, and are a lot less formal - no presentations, no meeting room etc, just casual conversation. What are other people's experiences of meetups, or thoughts on the video?

The New York City meetup yesterday has a video available of the second part of the meetup. It's quite an interesting discussion about requests for adminship, with participants including Newyorkbrad, MBisanz, DGG and various others. Up to about 25 mins in they discuss RFAs, then it's onto the chapter.

Quite an interesting thing to watch; not only the discussion, but also how meetups work out in other places. I've been to a few meetups, but they've all taken place in a pub/restaurant, and are a lot less formal - no presentations, no meeting room etc, just casual conversation. What are other people's experiences of meetups, or thoughts on the video?

If by "interesting" you mean "cure for insomnia", then I agree. Majorly.

The New York City meetup yesterday has a video available of the second part of the meetup. It's quite an interesting discussion about requests for adminship, with participants including Newyorkbrad, MBisanz, DGG and various others. Up to about 25 mins in they discuss RFAs, then it's onto the chapter.

Quite an interesting thing to watch; not only the discussion, but also how meetups work out in other places. I've been to a few meetups, but they've all taken place in a pub/restaurant, and are a lot less formal - no presentations, no meeting room etc, just casual conversation. What are other people's experiences of meetups, or thoughts on the video?

If by "interesting" you mean "cure for insomnia", then I agree. Majorly.

I had fun at the meet-up, and Wikipedians interested in the RfA process or in schools outreach might enjoy the videos, but since this is the Wikipedia Review audience, I should warn that the presentations didn't discuss BLP issues or no-indexing or the other real-life-impact-of-Wikipedia issues that are of greatest concern to the readership here.

What are other people's experiences of meetups, or thoughts on the video?

I naturally like mingling and like meetups, and would like to go to another one soon. The characters are very interesting! What I did see is that it was more higher-ups- bureaucrats, admins, arbs at the meetup I attended- I was the only mere editor so felt a bit overwhelmed. Most were a fair bit younger than me too, which some people expect and so don't go along, but I didn't expect (not that it was necessarily a bad thing, apart from making me feel raddled lol) oh and there were no other ladies there.

What are other people's experiences of meetups, or thoughts on the video?

I naturally like mingling and like meetups, and would like to go to another one soon. The characters are very interesting! What I did see is that it was more higher-ups- bureaucrats, admins, arbs at the meetup I attended- I was the only mere editor so felt a bit overwhelmed. Most were a fair bit younger than me too, which some people expect and so don't go along, but I didn't expect (not that it was necessarily a bad thing, apart from making me feel raddled lol) oh and there were no other ladies there.

The format of this meet-up, which included somewhat formal presentations as depicted on the video, is different from the usual one which is just people mingling and talking and dining. Of course, we had mingling and talking and dining too, although that part was sensibly not taped.

What are other people's experiences of meetups, or thoughts on the video?

I naturally like mingling and like meetups, and would like to go to another one soon. The characters are very interesting! What I did see is that it was more higher-ups- bureaucrats, admins, arbs at the meetup I attended- I was the only mere editor so felt a bit overwhelmed. Most were a fair bit younger than me too, which some people expect and so don't go along, but I didn't expect (not that it was necessarily a bad thing, apart from making me feel raddled lol) oh and there were no other ladies there.

That's because there are none on the internet in the UK, as you know, except yourself.

The New York City meetup yesterday has a video available of the second part of the meetup. It's quite an interesting discussion about requests for adminship, with participants including Newyorkbrad, MBisanz, DGG and various others. Up to about 25 mins in they discuss RFAs, then it's onto the chapter.

Quite an interesting thing to watch; not only the discussion, but also how meetups work out in other places. I've been to a few meetups, but they've all taken place in a pub/restaurant, and are a lot less formal - no presentations, no meeting room etc, just casual conversation. What are other people's experiences of meetups, or thoughts on the video?

Shouldn't everyone be wearing hoods?

Anyway, at about 10 minutes, they start criticizing you Alex.

I didn't get any further. The whole debate regarding minors being administrators - in fact, the video itself starting with that kid distorting the term "ageism" to mean the opposite of what it was designed to mean and the people it was supposed to protect - was so damn naive I gave up.

Daniel Brandt had it right in this post:

QUOTE(Daniel Brandt)

I always thought "ageism" referred to discrimination against the elderly, not the too-young. Every culture has entire systems of discrimination against the young. It all depends on the specific task to which they are entrusted. It wasn't until I came to Wikipedia that I heard the term "ageism" used to refer to those who discriminate against the too-young instead of the too-old.

There are also old people who lose competence in certain areas. For example, in California where you live, if you tell the physician that your elderly father is no longer competent to drive, and you don't know how to get him to stop driving, he will fill out a form if he agrees with you, and the DMV will send your father a letter telling him that he no longer has a license. Perfectly reasonable -- I wouldn't call that ageism.

Do you enjoy driving down a busy street in a little Volkswagen, surrounded by teenagers in SUVs and hulking pickup trucks, yakking on their cellphones? I don't. Would you want 15-year-olds to get the vote? How about sex? Is 13 okay, or 14? What about letting them drop out of school because they find it boring?

It's not a question of age, it's a question of competence for a given task. I submit that no publisher would hire a teenager to edit biographies of living persons. No, they would ask for a resume to determine whether the person applying for this sort of job is qualified. And their work would be checked by a senior editor of proven discretion, you can be sure.

If I ask for similar standards from Wikipedia, why do you throw around words like "ageism"? I think you are completely wrong on this one.

I revere Brandt's sharp mind, sleuthing skillz and his spunk*, and do wish he would come back here and post now and then.

However, his frequently vindictive behavior (to say nothing of the sophomoric cartoons on his website) resembles that of a pouting, tantruming toddler, which undercuts his credibility, at least when critiquing the relative maturity of Internet users.

That video exactly shows a major problem with WP "governance" as it exists. He's a cute kid, but why is he being allowed to talk about "ageism" at a WP meeting? Really, how valuable would a 12-year-old be to Wikipedia? Even if he's really smart, he's still lacking a great deal of life experience and education.

It makes me think of the old joke "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog".

This video is almost a joke by itself. I had the disturbing feeling that I was watching a sneaky viral parody put together by College Humor or Fark. Sorry, it just seems too Twilight Zone-ish.

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QUOTE(Newyorkbrad @ Tue 18th November 2008, 9:53am)

QUOTE(dogbiscuit @ Tue 18th November 2008, 9:51am)

I'd love to know what Sam's parents thought about what he was doing (did they know, do they approve, do they understand and aren't they worried that he'll lose his dress sense?).

His father was there.

I believe that I would leave any social gathering that a 12 year old showed up to as a "principal" rather than a child in the care of someone who couldn't make other arrangements. Of course, I would be gracious and considerate of both the child and adult in the latter situation. I'm not sure about my feeling about the parent here. He probably felt some misguided pride in his child's"precociousness" and simply failed to understand the environment his child had fallen into.

I'd love to know what Sam's parents thought about what he was doing (did they know, do they approve, do they understand and aren't they worried that he'll lose his dress sense?).

His father was there.

I believe that I would leave any social gathering that a 12 year old showed up to as a "principal" rather than a child in the care of someone who couldn't make other arrangements. Of course, I would be gracious and considerate of both the child and adult in the latter situation. I'm not sure about my feeling about the parent here. He probably felt some misguided pride in his child's"precociousness" and simply failed to understand the environment his child had fallen into.

So what line would you draw before you stormed out of the meeting? Age 16? 18? 21?